Holt was key factor in Portsmouth win

Sunday

Nov 18, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By DAN DOYONPortsmouth Herald

PORTSMOUTH — Senior Colin MacDonald needed only two words to describe how the Portsmouth High School football team captured its second consecutive Division III championship with a 54-27 victory over Goffstown on Saturday.

“Rick Holt,” MacDonald said. “If I ever had to go up against him, I’d be scared. He had a huge game today; he’s a heck of a player.”

Holt, the mammoth senior defensive/offensive lineman for the Clippers, capped off his stellar career by leading the defensive front along with Kurtis Leonard. While the Clippers allowed a season-high 27 points, Holt made his presence felt early and often.

Holt, who is also a star pitcher on the baseball team, has yet to make a decision on his college future despite interest from several Division I FCS programs.

“Rick is one of those athletes that comes along every now and then,” Portsmouth coach Bill Murphy said. “He’s strong, able to control the line of scrimmage and people can’t contain him. We’re going to miss him. When you have a Division I player in your program, you take advantage of it, and we were fortunate to have him for a couple of years.”

Holt said Portsmouth’s 7-0 victory over No. 2 Milford in last week’s semifinal was the team’s best defensive effort of the year. The Clippers held a Goffstown team that scored 54 points against top-seeded Souhegan last week to 14 points through three quarters on Saturday.

“We played probably our best offense of the year, and played good enough defense,” Holt said. “But to win this game, this is the best way to go out. I couldn’t be happier.”

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Goffstown quarterback Connor Benjamin was coming off a memorable performance in last week’s 54-53, overtime win at Souhegan. He finished the day with 309 yards and three touchdowns through the air, and 217 yards and four more touchdowns on the ground.

Saturday was a different story.

“We knew that we had to cut the head off the snake, and that’s what we did with Benjamin,” Leonard said. “We got him.”

Benjamin finished with 135 yards rushing on 26 carries and two touchdowns, but the bulk of that total came on a 55-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter with Goffstown trailing 41-14. He completed 5-of-14 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown. Jake Becker and Nate McFarland both intercepted Benjamin passes.

Benjamin is 0-4 in career against Portsmouth. He’s completed 26-of-75 passes for 379 yards, 11 interceptions and one touchdown in those games.

“He had a couple of big plays, but I think we contained him enough,” Holt said. “We knew if we stopped him enough and scored points like we can, we’d do pretty well.”

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The season didn’t go the way senior Travis MacDonald envisioned, but it still ended with the ultimate goal. He was the presumed starter at quarterback this preseason before suffering a shoulder injury in a scrimmage against Marshwood.

Donovan Phanor eventually took control of the starting job while battling injuries of his own, but MacDonald showed no disappointment while hoisting the championship trophy on Saturday as one of the team’s captains.

“It didn’t go how it planned out, but the feelings came back and it was better than last year,” he said. “Two times in a row.”

The highlight of his season came in his second game back, when he relieved an injured Phanor in Portsmouth’s 24-8 victory over Pembroke last month. MacDonald completed 5-of-6 passes for 79 yards and a touchdown before getting hurt again a week later. He took a knee on the final two plays of Saturday’s championship victory.

He couldn’t help but be amazed with Phanor’s big performance.

“He put on a show; he put on a clinic,” MacDonald said. “You couldn’t ask for a better game. I’m speechless.”

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Portsmouth outgained Goffstown 503-305 in offensive yards. ... Dillon Crosby’s 31 yards on 13 carries gave him 724 yards rushing with eight touchdowns to lead the Clippers this season. ... Phanor followed last week’s 108 yards rushing against Milford with 178 on Saturday to give him 639 yards for the season with five touchdowns. He finished with 773 passing yards for eight touchdowns and three interceptions. ... This was Portsmouth’s ninth championship in program history.